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I wanted to share some numbers of one of my clients who has organically grown his lettings portfolio from 150 to 225 managed properties in 24 months. The preceding 2 years before that, he had hardly grown his lettings agency, taking the odd one on but loosing the odd one to accidental landlords selling up. In those two years, he has spent the following … £300 per month in Rightmove Featured Agents Ads£75 per week in content writing (articles written by a ghostwriter …. like this )£65 per month in graphics work by a graphics designer …. like this£200 per month in printing£10 per month for a domain name and hosting+ around 15 minutes a day looking at Rightmove and bit of cut and paste work+ around 2.5 hours a week doing a bit of social media work using a step by step guide+ around 3 hours a month visiting (on foot) local solicitors, local accountants etcIf I am being frank, the Rightmove

You are probably struggling, as its hard work being an agent at the moment .. especially as now the market will shrink post Brexit, whilst the Purplebricks of this world are taking market share with their cheap fees, other High Street agents slashing fees .. it isn’t pretty out there. Frustrating isn’t it? It feels like you are banging your head against a brick wall. Letting and estate agents are always looking for shortcuts to get more free valuations, more stock on the books and greater market share

Ask an estate / letting agent why they are finding it tough to hit your targets and
they will say .. BrexitYour ManagerYour ClientsCompetitor Agents charging cheap feesBrexit The UK house market runs off the back of the economy, and the British economy
will become demanding, challenging and testing, especially with Brexit. How you
respond to those challenges determine whether or not the potential downturn
hurts you or whether it allows you to grow stronger. You got a single vote in
the Brexit referendum. You may not like the result, and you may spend time
reading Facebook posts that confirm your opinion (detrimental behaviour that only
you alone control). You will produce the results and have the success that you
are determined to regardless what happens in the British political arena

The cheeky purple chaps from Purplebricks charge £798 to sell your house (outside London) whilst Yopa have under cut them by £18 – as they only charge £780. .. and then there is your agency…. What is your average fee? I bet it’s a lot more .. but more and more I am hearing that is under threat. More and more I am talking to agents around the UK and their fear of the cheap fee ‘hybrid agents’ taking over their town. The only way the Purplebrick’s and Yopa’s of this world can charge these low fees is to ‘scale up’ their operation. Yes, they sell property just like you, but they need make the savings in costs to turn a profit, so they have no High Street costs, a central base for sales chasing and everything else automated …. it is scale that is their secret, and they plan to turn estate agency to a ‘commodity’ estate agency business. Did you know Yopa and Purplebricks are into a price war? Not with each other .. No, they are in a fee war with your High Street agency. High Street agents are g…

The Author

Hello, my name is Christopher Watkin from Grantham in Lincolnshire.

This blog are some of my thoughts on the systems I have adopted, adapted and improved to organically grow estate and lettings agency's by at least 20% to 30% per year. (you will say what is the catch - hard work and persistence)